WO2022140959A1

WO2022140959A1 - Communication method, apparatus and system

Info

Publication number: WO2022140959A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/140312
Authority: WO
Inventors: 卓义斌; 刘菁; 朱元萍; 罗海燕
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2020-12-28
Filing date: 2020-12-28
Publication date: 2022-07-07
Also published as: CN116601894A

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of communications. Disclosed are a communication method, apparatus and system, which are used for solving the problem in the prior art of resource overheads for network encoding being large. The method comprises: a first node performing network encoding on data packets of a plurality of bearers together to acquire encoded data packets, wherein a target node of the data packets of the plurality of bearers is a second node; and the first node sending the encoded data packets to the second node.

Description

A communication method, device and system

technical field

The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method, device, and system.

Background technique

Network coding is a data exchange technology that combines routing and encoding. By encoding and sending data at the encoding end and receiving and decoding data at the decoding end, the efficiency and accuracy of data transmission between devices (network elements) can be effectively improved. However, in a network such as integrated access and backhaul (IAB), whether it is uplink transmission or downlink transmission, network coding is performed with the bearer as the granularity, and the nodes in the network directly or indirectly serve the terminal equipment. There may be very many. To perform network coding on each bearer of each terminal device, a large number of network coding processes need to be run in parallel, which brings huge resource overhead. Therefore, a communication solution is needed to reduce the network coding resource overhead during network data transmission such as IAB.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a communication method, device and system to solve the problem of high network coding resource overhead in the prior art.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: a first node performs network coding on a plurality of bearer data packets together, and obtains an encoded data packet, wherein the target node of the plurality of bearer data packets is is the second node; the first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node. Optionally, the bearer is a data radio bearer DRB, a radio link control RLC bearer or a backhaul radio link control channel BH RLC CH, etc.; when the data packets carried by the multiple bearers are downlink data packets, the first One node is a distributed unit DU or an intermediate IAB node that accesses the backhaul integrated IAB host, and the second node is an access IAB node; when the data packets carried by the multiple bearers are uplink data packets, the second node is an access IAB node. One node is an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node, and the second node is a DU hosted by the IAB.

Using the above method, the first node performs network coding on the data packets carried by the same target node together, which can reduce the number of network coding processes running in parallel by the first node (ie, the sending node) during data coding, thereby reducing the IAB Network coding resource overhead during network data transmission.

In a possible design, the method further includes: the first node receives configuration information from a host node of the first node; the first node determines the plurality of bearers according to the configuration information .

In the above design, the host node of the first node can instruct the first node to participate in the range of the bearer of the network coding together, so that the bearer (or service) with specific requirements such as low latency can be free from the delay caused by the network coding together. Influenced by factors such as, at the same time, network coding of multiple bearer data packets can also release buffers for other bearers and improve the data throughput of other bearers. In addition, when the encoded data packets are transmitted in multiple paths, the beneficial effects of improving transmission reliability and reducing transmission delay can also be brought about.

In a possible design, the configuration information includes at least one of identification information of the multiple bearers, identification information of one or more Internet Protocol IP packet headers, and a delay threshold. Wherein, when the configuration information includes the one or more IP header identification information, the first node determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, including: the first node assigns the one or more bearers The multiple bearers corresponding to the multiple IP packet header identification information are determined as the multiple bearers. When the configuration information includes the delay threshold, the first node determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, including: the first node requires the delay to be greater than or equal to the delay threshold The multiple bearers of are determined as the multiple bearers.

In the above design, the host node of the first node can configure multiple bearers for the first node to participate in performing network coding together through configuration information in various forms of content, which is beneficial to satisfy different communication scenarios for multiple bearers participating in performing network coding together. The configuration requirements of each bearer.

In a possible design, the method further includes: the first node receiving routing configuration information from a host node of the first node, the routing configuration information instructing the first node to pass one or more The transmission path sends the encoded data packet to the second node; the first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node, including: the first node passes the one or more transmission paths, The encoded data packet is sent to the second node.

In the above design, the host node of the first node can configure one or more transmission paths for the first node to send the encoded data packet to the second node, which is beneficial to enable the transmission of the encoded data packet on the backhaul link; When transmitting on multiple transmission paths, the beneficial effects of improving transmission reliability and reducing transmission delay can also be brought about.

In a possible design, when the routing configuration information indicates that the first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node through multiple transmission paths, the routing configuration information further includes the multiple transmission paths. The split ratio information of the transmission path.

In the above design, when the first node sends encoded data packets to the second node through multiple transmission paths, the host node of the first node can also indicate the distribution ratio information of the multiple transmission paths through the routing configuration information, which is conducive to realizing load balancing. , improve the transmission efficiency of encoded data packets and reduce the packet loss rate.

In a possible design, sending the encoded data packet by the first node to the second node includes: the first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node through transmission paths corresponding to the multiple bearers The encoded data packet is sent.

In the above design, the coded data packet multiplexing carries the corresponding transmission path, which can reduce the signaling overhead of the routing configuration information configured on the coded data packet transmission path, and enable the transmission of the coded data packet on the backhaul link; Each bearer corresponds to multiple transmission paths, and when encoded data packets are transmitted on multiple transmission paths corresponding to multiple bearers, the beneficial effects of improving transmission reliability and reducing transmission delay can also be brought about.

In a possible design, the method further includes: when the multiple bearers correspond to multiple transmission paths, the first node according to the data amount of the multiple bearers in the data packets of the multiple bearers ratio, to determine the split ratio of the multiple transmission paths.

In the above design, when the first node can determine the distribution ratio of multiple transmission paths according to the amount of data carried by multiple transmission paths, it is beneficial to achieve load balancing, improve the transmission efficiency of encoded data packets, and reduce packet loss. Rate.

In a possible design, the packet header of the encoded data packet includes the identifier of the first node.

In the above design, by carrying the identifier of the first node, the second node is enabled to perceive the information of the first node, and accurately perform network decoding on the encoded data packet from the first node.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: a second node receives multiple encoded data packets, wherein packet headers of the multiple encoded data packets include an identifier of the first node; the second node The plurality of encoded data packets are network decoded together.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: a host node of a first node sends configuration information to the first node, where the configuration information includes identification information of multiple bearers, one or more At least one item of network protocol IP packet header identification information and delay threshold is used to determine multiple bearers for network coding together.

In a possible design, the method further includes: the host node sends routing configuration information to the first node, where the routing configuration information indicates one or more encoded data packets obtained through the network coding transmission path.

In a possible design, when the routing configuration information indicates multiple transmission paths of the encoded data packets obtained through the network coding, the routing configuration information further includes the distribution ratio of the multiple transmission paths.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the device has a function of implementing the first aspect or any possible method in the design of the first aspect, and the function can be implemented by hardware, or can be implemented by hardware Execute the corresponding software implementation. The hardware or software includes one or more units (modules) corresponding to the above functions, such as a transceiver unit and a processing unit.

In one possible design, the device may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

In a possible design, the apparatus includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, the at least one processor is coupled to the interface circuit, and is used to implement the above-mentioned first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect function of the described method. It can be understood that the interface circuit can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. The apparatus may further comprise a memory storing a computer program executable by the at least one processor for implementing the functions of the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect above .

In one possible design, the device may be the first node.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the device has a function of implementing the method described in the second aspect above, and the function can be implemented by hardware or by executing corresponding software in hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more units (modules) corresponding to the above functions, such as a transceiver unit and a processing unit.

In one possible design, the device may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

In a possible design, the apparatus includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, the at least one processor is coupled to the interface circuit, and is configured to implement the functions of the method described in the second aspect above. It can be understood that the interface circuit can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. The apparatus may further comprise a memory storing a computer program executable by the at least one processor for implementing the functions of the method described in the second aspect above.

In one possible design, the device may be the second node.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the device has a function of implementing the third aspect or any possible method in the design of the third aspect, and the function may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware Execute the corresponding software implementation. The hardware or software includes one or more units (modules) corresponding to the above functions, such as a transceiver unit and a processing unit.

In one possible design, the device may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

In a possible design, the apparatus includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, the at least one processor is coupled to the interface circuit, and is used to implement the above third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect function of the described method. It can be understood that the interface circuit can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. The apparatus may further comprise a memory storing a computer program executable by the at least one processor for implementing the functions of the method described in the above third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect .

In one possible design, the apparatus may be the host node of the first node.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program or instruction is stored, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the communication device is made to perform the above-mentioned first aspect or the first aspect The method described in any of the possible designs of , or the method described in the second aspect above, or the method described in the third aspect or any of the possible designs of the third aspect.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, including a computer program or an instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the first aspect or any possibility of the first aspect can be implemented. The method described in the design of the above, or the method described in the second aspect above, or the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which is used to implement the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or implement the method described in the second aspect above. method, or implementing the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, where the system includes a first node, a second node, and a host node of the first node, and the first node is configured to execute the first aspect or the first node. The method described in any possible design of one aspect; the second node is configured to execute the method described in the second aspect; the host node of the first node is configured to execute the third aspect or the third aspect The method described in any possible design of the aspect.

For the technical effects that can be achieved by the above second aspect to the tenth aspect, please refer to the technical effects that can be achieved by the above first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is one of the schematic diagrams of the communication system architecture provided by the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is the second schematic diagram of the communication system architecture provided by the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is one of the schematic diagrams of the protocol stack structure provided by the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is the second schematic diagram of a protocol stack structure provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a bearer transmission path mapping provided by an embodiment of the present application;

6 is a schematic diagram of an RLNC coding principle provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is one of schematic diagrams of data transmission provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is the second schematic diagram of data transmission provided by the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is one of schematic diagrams of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is one of schematic diagrams of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

Compared with the fourth generation mobile communication or the long term evolution (LTE) system, the fifth generation mobile communication (5th generation, 5G) or the new radio (NR) system is aimed at various performance indicators of the network, in all aspects. have put forward more stringent requirements. For example, the capacity index has been increased by 1000 times, wider coverage requirements, ultra-high reliability and ultra-low latency, etc. On the one hand, considering the abundance of high-frequency carrier frequency resources, in hotspot areas, in order to meet the ultra-high capacity requirements of 5G, the use of high-frequency small stations to form a network is becoming more and more popular. High-frequency carriers have poor propagation characteristics, are severely attenuated by occlusion, and have limited coverage, so a large number of small stations need to be densely deployed. Therefore, an economical and convenient backhaul solution is required; on the other hand, from the perspective of wide coverage requirements, to provide network coverage in some remote areas, the deployment of optical fibers is difficult and costly, and flexible and convenient access and backhaul solutions also need to be designed . The wireless backhaul device provides an idea for solving the above two problems: both the access link (AL) and the backhaul link (BL) use a wireless transmission scheme to reduce fiber deployment. The wireless backhaul device may be a relay node (relay node, RN), an IAB node, or other devices that provide a wireless backhaul function, which is not limited in this application. Taking the IAB node as an example, in the IAB network, the IAB node (IAB node), as a wireless backhaul device, can provide wireless access services for the terminal device, and the service data of the terminal device is connected to the IAB by the IAB node through the wireless backhaul link. The host or host base station transmits. Using an IAB node can share antennas for access and backhaul, reducing the number of antennas at the base station.

The embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Features or contents marked with dotted lines in the drawings may be understood as optional operations or optional structures of the embodiments of the present application.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a possible communication system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application, including: an IAB donor (IAB donor), an IAB node, and at least one terminal device (such as terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 in FIG. 1 ), and also Core network equipment may be included. There may be one or more IAB hosts, IAB nodes, terminal devices, and core network devices in the communication system, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. The terminal device can be wirelessly connected to the IAB node, and can be connected to the IAB host through one or more IAB nodes (of course, the terminal device can also be directly connected to the IAB host wirelessly), and the IAB host can be wireless or wired. way to connect with the core network equipment. In addition, it can be understood that the core network device and the IAB host may be independent and different physical devices, or the functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the IAB host may be integrated on the same physical device, or they may be a physical device. It integrates the functions of some core network devices and some functions of the IAB host. The wireless links between the above-mentioned devices (network elements) can communicate through licensed spectrum (licensed spectrum), can also communicate through unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed spectrum), and can communicate through licensed spectrum and unlicensed spectrum at the same time. The wireless link between devices (network elements) can communicate through the frequency spectrum below 6 GHz (gigahertz, GHz), and can also communicate through the frequency spectrum above 6 GHz, and can also use the frequency spectrum below 6 GHz and the frequency spectrum above 6 GHz at the same time. communication. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used by the wireless link.

In this embodiment of the present application, an IAB node (IAB node) may also be referred to as a relay node (relay node, RN) or a wireless backhaul node/device. The IAB node may include at least one mobile terminal (mobile terminal, MT) unit and at least one distributed unit (distributed unit, DU). In FIG. 1 , description is made only by taking an example that an IAB node includes an MT unit and a DU. The MT unit in the IAB node implements the IAB as a terminal device to communicate with the parent node of the IAB node and the IAB host node, and has the function of user equipment (UE). The DU in the IAB node can provide access services for the terminal equipment attached to it or other IAB nodes. The MT unit in the IAB node may also be referred to as the MT functional entity in the IAB node, and the DU in the IAB node may also be referred to as the DU functional entity in the IAB node. For the convenience of description, in the embodiments of this application, the MT unit (MT functional entity) in the IAB node is referred to as "MT of the IAB node", and the DU (DU functional entity) in the IAB node is referred to as "DU of the IAB node" for short. . The IAB node can provide wireless access services for the terminal device, and the service data or control information of the terminal device is connected to the IAB host or the network device by the IAB node through the wireless backhaul link for transmission.

The IAB donor (IAB donor) can also be called a wireless access network device, which is a device that provides wireless communication functions for terminal devices. For example, radio access network equipment includes but is not limited to: next-generation base stations (gnodeB, gNB) in 5G, evolved node B (evolved node B, eNB), radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), Node B ( node B, NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved nodeB, or home node B, HNB), baseband unit (baseBand unit) , BBU), transmission point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), transmitting point (transmitting point, TP), mobile switching center, base station in future mobile communication system or wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, WiFi) access in system node etc. It may be an access network element with a complete base station function, or may be an access network element in the form of a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and a DU separated. The IAB host can connect to the core network (eg connected to the 5G core network, 5GC) network elements serving the terminal equipment and provide wireless backhaul functions for the IAB nodes. For ease of expression, in the embodiments of the present application, the CU (CU functional entity) in the IAB host is abbreviated as the CU of the IAB host (also known as IAB-donor-CU), and the DU (DU functional entity) in the IAB host is abbreviated as IAB host DU (also known as IAB-donor-DU), wherein, the CU of the IAB host may also be a form in which the control plane (CP) and user plane (user plane, UP) are separated, for example, an IAB host's CU A CU consists of one CU-CP (also called IAB-donor-CU-CP) and multiple CU-UPs (also called IAB-donor-CU-UP), which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

A terminal device is a device with a wireless transceiver function, which can also be called a terminal (terminal), user equipment (UE), mobile station (mobile station, MS), mobile terminal (mobile terminal, MT), etc. The terminal device can be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, an industrial control (industrial control) wireless terminals in ), wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grid, wireless terminals in transportation safety Wireless terminals, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, and so on.

IAB hosts, IAB nodes, and terminal devices can be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; and they can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons, and satellites in the air. This application does not limit the application scenarios of the IAB host, the IAB node and the terminal device.

In addition, in the current 5G standard, considering the small coverage of high frequency bands, in order to ensure the coverage performance of the network, multi-hop networking may be used in the IAB network. Considering the requirement of service transmission reliability, the IAB node can be made to support dual connectivity (DC) or multi-connectivity (multi-connectivity) to deal with possible abnormal situations in the backhaul link, such as link failure or blocking (blockage) and load fluctuations and other abnormalities, improve the reliability of transmission.

The IAB network supports multi-hop and multi-connection networking, so there may be multiple transmission paths between the terminal device and the IAB host. On a transmission path, it includes multiple nodes, such as terminal equipment, one or more IAB nodes (IAB nodes), and IAB hosts (if the IAB donor is in the form of CU and DU separation, it also includes the IAB-donor-DU part , and the IAB-donor-CU part), each IAB node regards the adjacent nodes that provide backhaul services for it as a parent node, and accordingly, each IAB node can be regarded as a child node of its parent node.

Exemplarily, in FIG. 2, the parent node of IAB node 1 is the IAB host, and IAB node 1 is the parent node of IAB node 2 and IAB node 3, and both IAB node 2 and IAB node 3 are parent nodes of IAB node 4. The parent node of IAB node 5 is IAB node 2. The uplink data packets of the terminal equipment can be transmitted to the IAB host through one or more IAB nodes, and then sent by the IAB host to the mobile gateway device (such as the user plane functional unit UPF in the 5G core network), and the downlink data packets will be sent by the IAB host from After being received by the mobile gateway device, it is then sent to the terminal device through one or more IAB nodes. There are two paths available for data transmission between terminal device 1 and IAB host, path 1: terminal device 1←→IAB node 4←→IAB node 3←→IAB node 1←→IAB host, path 2: terminal device 1 ←→IAB node 4←→IAB node 2←→IAB node 1←→IAB host. It should be noted that in the IAB network, no matter which path is selected for data transmission between terminal device 1 and the IAB host, the destination node of the uplink data between terminal device 1 and the IAB host is the IAB host, and the terminal device 1 and The target nodes of downlink data between IAB hosts are all access IAB nodes, that is, IAB node 4 .

There are three paths available for data transmission between terminal device 2 and IAB host, path 1: terminal device 2←→IAB node 4←→IAB node 3←→IAB node 1←→IAB host, path 2: terminal device 2← →IAB node 4←→IAB node 2←→IAB node 1←→IAB host, path 3: terminal device 2←→IAB node 5←→IAB node 2←→IAB node 1←→IAB host. Similarly, in the IAB network, no matter which path is selected for data transmission between terminal device 2 and the IAB host, the destination node of the uplink data between terminal device 2 and the IAB host is the IAB host, and the destination node of the uplink data between terminal device 2 and the IAB host is the IAB host. The target nodes of the downlink data between the two are all connected to the IAB node, that is, the IAB node 4 or the IAB node 5 .

In this application, in the IAB network, the target node of the downlink data packet sent to the terminal device generally refers to the access IAB node accessed by the terminal device, and the target node of the uplink data packet sent by the terminal device to the IAB host generally refers to the terminal device. The IAB host node of the device's access IAB node.

It should be understood that the IAB networking scenario shown in Figure 2 is only exemplary, and in the IAB network combining multi-hop and multi-connection, there are more other possibilities, such as: IAB host (IAB DgNB1) and The IAB nodes under another IAB host (IAB DgNB2) form dual connections to serve terminal equipment, etc., which are not listed one by one.

In the current discussion of the IAB network, it is determined to introduce a new protocol layer in the wireless backhaul link - the backhaul adaptation protocol (BAP) layer, which is located in the wireless link control layer protocol ( Above the radio link control (RLC) layer, it can be used to implement functions such as data packet routing on the wireless backhaul link and bearer mapping.

Between the IAB node (or the DU of the IAB) and the IAB host (or the CU of the IAB host), an F1 interface (or also called the F1* interface) needs to be established. Not limited), the interface supports user plane protocols (F1-U/F1*-U) and control plane protocols (F1-C/F1*-C). Wherein, as shown in Figure 3, the user plane protocol includes one or more of the following protocol layers: a general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS) tunneling protocol user plane (GPRS tunnelling protocol user plane, GTP-U) layer, User datagram protocol (user datagram protocol, UDP) layer, and Internet (or Internet) protocol (internet protocol, IP) and other protocol layers; As shown in Figure 4, the control plane protocol of the interface includes one or more of the following : F1 application protocol (F1 application protocol, F1AP) layer, stream control transport protocol (stream control transport protocol, SCTP) layer and IP layer, etc.

Through the control plane of the F1/F1* interface, the interface management between the IAB node and the IAB host can be performed, the management of the IAB-DU, and the configuration related to the context of the terminal device can be performed. Through the user plane of the F1/F1* interface, user plane data transmission and downlink transmission status feedback can be performed between the IAB node and the IAB host.

It can be understood that the network architecture and service scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are for the purpose of illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application more clearly, and do not constitute limitations on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application. It can be seen that, with the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of other service scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems. For example, the IAB node may also be a relay node (or wireless backhaul device) and a radio access network device (or base station) in the LTE system.

The access IAB node in the embodiment of the present application refers to the IAB node accessed by the terminal device, and the intermediate IAB node refers to the IAB node that provides wireless backhaul services for the terminal device or the IAB node. Exemplarily, referring to FIG. 2, in the path "terminal device 1-IAB node 4-IAB node 3-IAB node 1-IAB host", IAB node 4 is the access IAB node, and IAB node 3 and IAB node 1 are intermediate IAB node. It should be noted that, for a terminal device accessing the IAB node, an IAB node is an access IAB node. For terminal equipment accessing other IAB nodes, it is an intermediate IAB node. Therefore, whether an IAB node is an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node is not fixed and needs to be determined according to a specific application scenario.

In the IAB scenario, the routing and bearer mapping rules of data packets are uniformly configured by the CU hosted by the IAB. Among them, for the uplink data packet, the CU of the IAB host configures the routing and bearer mapping rules of the uplink user plane data packet for the IAB node accessed by the terminal device according to the uplink destination IP address and tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) of the data packet. , where the TEID information includes terminal equipment and data radio bearer (DRB) information, so it can be considered that routing and bearer mapping rules are separately configured for each terminal equipment DRB granularity. As shown in Figure 5, the routing and bearer mapping rules of uplink user plane data packets configured by the CU of the IAB host to the IAB node 3 determine the transmission path of each terminal device DRB on the backhaul link. The transmission paths correspond to the terminal device 1DRB1, the terminal device 1DRB2, the terminal device 2DRB1, and the terminal device 2DRB2 in sequence.

In addition, for uplink non-user plane data packets, the CU of the IAB hosts according to the service type of the uplink data packets, such as F1AP messages associated with terminal equipment, F1AP messages associated with non-terminal equipment, non-F1 messages, BAP control protocol data units (protocol data units) unit, PDU) and other service types, respectively configure routing and bearer mapping rules for the uplink data packets of each service type.

For downlink data packets, whether they are user plane or non-user plane packets, the CUs hosted by the IAB can be unified to carry different destination IP addresses and/or differentiated services code points (DSCP) and/or flow labels (flow labels). The downlink data packets of label) are configured with routing and bearer mapping rules respectively. The DU hosted by the IAB can perform routing and bearer mapping on downlink data packets carrying different destination IP addresses and/or DSCP and/or flow labels according to the routing and bearer mapping rules. For example, the DU hosted by the IAB can determine the address of the target node corresponding to the downlink data packet carrying a certain target IP address and/or DSCP and/or flow label according to the routing and bearer mapping rule.

However, using the communication scheme of performing network coding on each bearer of each terminal device as shown in FIG. 5 requires a large number of network coding processes to be run in parallel, which will bring huge resource overhead. The embodiments of the present application aim to use node granularity. It can reduce the resource overhead caused by network coding, and can also reduce the signaling overhead caused by the separate configuration of routing and bearer mapping rules for multiple bearers. The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to specific implementations.

It should be understood that, in order to facilitate the description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, "/" may indicate that the objects associated before and after are an "or" relationship, for example, A/B may indicate A or B; "And/or" can be used to describe the existence of three relationships between related objects, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A alone exists, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be is singular or plural. In order to facilitate the description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "first" and "second" may be used to distinguish technical features with the same or similar functions. The words "first", "second" and the like do not limit the quantity and execution order, and the words "first", "second" and the like do not limit the difference. In the embodiments of the present application, multiple refers to two or more than two, and words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate an example, illustration or illustration, and are described as "exemplary" or "for example" No embodiment or design should be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. The use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a specific manner to facilitate understanding.

The following first introduces and explains the concept of network coding.

Network coding, such as random linear network coding (RLNC), fountain code, etc., works in roughly the same principle, that is, the sender performs network coding on one or more original data packets to obtain a series of encoded data packets , and then send the obtained encoded data packets to the receiving end. After the receiving end accumulates enough encoded data packets, it can decode (or decode) and restore the original one or more data packets. The following takes RLNC network coding as an example to introduce network coding:

The basic principle of RLNC _- based network coding is shown in Figure 6. The sender divides the original data packets to be sent into multiple groups of _RLNC coding blocks. ...,X _N means that the formula can be used for these N original data packets

Perform linear combination to generate K (K>=N) encoded data packets, where K encoded data packets are represented by Y ₁ , Y ₂ ,..., Y _K , where Y _k represents the k-th encoded data packet, and X _n represents The n-th original data packet, g _k,n represents the random coefficient of the n-th original data packet in the k-th encoded data packet, and g _k,n is obtained from a finite field or Galois field (GF) _Randomly selected, the GF field is a field containing a finite number of elements, and GF(q) can be used to represent a GF field containing q elements. The used coding coefficient vector [g _k,1 ,g _k,2 ,...,g _k,N ], the dimension of the coding coefficient vector is the same as the number N of original data packets in each group of coding blocks, the sender Each group of RLNC coding blocks sends K (K>=N) coded data packets to the receiving end; if the number of coded data packets received by the receiving end is not less than N, and the coding coefficient vector carried in the head of the coded data packet consists of The rank of the matrix is N (that is, the number of original data packets), that is to say, the receiving end has received N linearly independent encoded data packets, and the receiving end can construct a linear equation system according to the encoding coefficients. In the linear equation system X _n ,n∈{1,2,...N} are N unknowns to be solved, and N original data packets can be decoded by using linear equation theory.

Suppose that for all K encoded data packets Y ₁ , Y ₂ ,..., Y _K , all received by the receiving end are correct, and the header of each received encoded data packet Y _k contains an indication information indicating a length of N The encoding coefficient vector [g _k,1 ,g _k,2 ,...,g _k,N ], the receiving end combines the received K encoding coefficient vectors together to form an unknown number X ₁ , X ₂ ,. ..,X _N is an N-element first-order linear equation system, the coefficient matrix G of the equation system is as follows, and the rank of the coefficient matrix is N, the receiving end can use the corresponding coefficient matrix to decode N according to the correct encoded data packet received. original data packets.

In the wireless channel environment, due to factors such as fading caused by channel noise or mobility, or interference caused by other users, some coded data packets received by the receiving end are erroneous. When the number L is not less than the number N of the original data packets, and the rank of the matrix composed of the coding coefficient vectors carried in the headers of the L encoded data packets is the number N of the original data packets, the receiving end can still decode N original packet. Therefore, for RLNC technology, the sender does not need to wait for the feedback request from the receiver to retransmit. RLNC can send several encoded data packets in advance to combat the influence of the wireless channel, save time delay, and do not need to consume multiples of resources. Each transport block (TB) performs blind retransmission to reduce the waste of spectrum resources.

In the IAB scenario, there may be multiple routing paths between the data packet sending node and the destination node (ie, the receiving node). For example, in Figure 2, there are two routing paths between the IAB host and IAB node 4. The following data packet as an example, when the IAB host performs network encoding on the data packet, the encoded data packet after network encoding can be transmitted to the IAB node 4 through two routing paths, even if one path fails or is congested, the IAB node 4 As long as enough encoded data packets are received from another path, the original data packets can be recovered, thereby improving the reliability of data transmission and reducing data transmission delay. Therefore, there is a good gain in introducing network coding in the IAB scenario. At the same time, in order to maximize the multi-routing path characteristics of the IAB scenario for network coding, it is generally believed that network coding is performed at the BAP layer or the upper protocol layer of the BAP.

As shown in FIG. 7, a schematic diagram of a communication method 700 provided by an embodiment of the present application, the process includes:

S701: The first node performs network coding on at least one bearer data packet together to obtain an encoded data packet.

Wherein, the at least one bearer may be a DRB, or an RLC bearer or a backhaul RLC channel (backhaul RLC channel, BH RLC CH), and the destination node of the data packet carried by the at least one bearer is the same.

In this embodiment of the present application, for downlink transmission, that is, when the at least one bearer data packet is a downlink data packet, the first node may be a DU or an intermediate IAB node hosted by an IAB, and the second node may be an access IAB node node. Taking the communication system architecture shown in FIG. 2 as an example, IAB node 4 and IAB node 5 are access IAB nodes, IAB node 1, IAB node 2 and IAB node 3 are intermediate IAB nodes, and the first node can be the DU hosted by the IAB. Or IAB node 1 or IAB node 2 or IAB node 3, and the second node may be IAB node 4 or IAB node 5.

For uplink transmission, that is, when the at least one bearer data packet is an uplink data packet, the first node may be an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node, and the second node may be a DU hosted by the IAB. Still taking the communication system architecture shown in FIG. 2 as an example, the first node can be any IAB node among IAB node 1, IAB node 2, IAB node 3, IAB node 4 and IAB node 5, and the second node can be IAB node Host's DU.

In a possible implementation, the first node may perform network coding on at least one bearer data packet with the same target node by default, so as to obtain an encoded data packet. Referring to FIG. 8 , taking the first node as the DU hosted by the IAB and the target node as the IAB node 3 as an example, since the downlink data packets on the terminal device 1DRB1, the terminal device 1DRB2, the terminal device 2DRB1 and the terminal device 2DRB2 need to be finally mapped The target nodes of the IAB are all IAB node 3, and the DU hosted by the IAB can perform network coding on the downlink data packets that need to be mapped to the terminal equipment 1DRB1, terminal equipment 1DRB2, terminal equipment 2DRB1 and terminal equipment 2DRB2, so as to obtain encoded data packets.

In addition, the network coding of at least one bearer of the same target node will bring a certain delay. When there are multiple bearers participating in the network coding, the delay requirements of the multiple bearers may exist. Therefore, for bearers with urgent delay requirements, in order to reduce the problem that the transmission delay of data packets does not meet the delay requirements caused by network coding together with other bearers, the bearers with urgent delay requirements can be combined with other bearers. network coding. In addition, considering that the transmission of data packets carried by multiple bearers with the same target node also has other different transmission requirements, such as transmission requirements such as packet loss rate and service quality, the host node of the first node can also send configuration information to the first node. The configuration information may be used to determine the above-mentioned at least one bearer. The destination node of the at least one bearer data packet may be the second node. The host node of the first node may specifically be the CU of the IAB host of the first node. The configuration information may include one or more of the identification information of one or more bearers, the identification information of one or more IP packet headers, a delay threshold, and the like. The first node may determine the at least one bearer according to the configuration information. The following description will be given with reference to the specific implementation manner.

(1) The configuration information includes a delay threshold.

In a possible implementation, for downlink transmission or uplink transmission, the host node of the first node may configure a delay threshold for the first node. For at least one bearer with the same target node of the mapped data packet, when the delay requirement of a bearer is greater than or equal to the delay threshold, it is determined that the data packets that need to be mapped to the bearer participate in network coding together. As an example: the destination node of the mapped data packet is also the bearer of "IAB node 3", including DRB1, DRB2 and DRB3, where the delay requirement of DRB1 is 60ms, the delay requirement of DRB2 is 40ms, and the delay requirement of DRB3 is 70ms, the delay threshold is 50ms, and the first node determines to perform network coding on the data packets that need to be mapped to DRB1 and DRB3 together.

(2) The configuration information includes one or more IP packet header identification information.

In a possible implementation, for downlink transmission or uplink transmission, the host node of the first node may configure one or more IP header identification information for the first node. For at least one bearer with the same target node of the mapped data packet, when the IP header identification information of a certain bearer data packet matches any one of the one or more IP packet header identification information, it is determined that mapping is required. Packets to this bearer participate in network coding together. For downlink transmission, the IP header identification information configured for the first node by the host node of the first node may be one of the IP header identification information such as the target IP address (also referred to as the destination IP address), DSCP, flow label, etc. or Multiple items; for uplink transmission, the IP header identification information configured for the first node by the host node of the first node may be one or more items of IP header identification information such as target IP address and TEID. Referring to FIG. 8 , it is assumed that the first node is the DU hosted by the IAB (it can be considered that the host node of the first node is the CU hosted by the IAB), and the target node is the IAB node 3, which needs to be mapped to the terminal device 1DRB1 and the terminal device 1DRB2 . The destination nodes of the data packets of the terminal device 2DRB1 and the terminal device 2DRB2 are the same, and both are the IAB node 3 . Wherein, the IP header identification information of the data packet that needs to be mapped to the terminal device 1DRB1 includes the IP address (destination IP address) of the terminal device 1, and the IP header identification information of the data packet that needs to be mapped to the terminal device 1DRB2 includes the IP address of the terminal device 1. (destination IP address), the IP header identification information of the data packet that needs to be mapped to the terminal device 2DRB1 includes the IP address (destination IP address) of the terminal device 2, and the IP header identification information of the data packet that needs to be mapped to the terminal device 2DRB2 includes the terminal device. 2 IP address (destination IP address), if the IP header identification information configured by the CU of the IAB host for the DU of the IAB host only includes the IP address (destination IP address) of the terminal device 1, then the DU of the IAB host determines that it needs to be mapped to The data packets of the terminal device 1DRB1 and the terminal device 1DRB2 are network-coded together.

(3) The configuration information includes identifiers of one or more bearers.

If the first node can identify the bearer's identifier, for downlink transmission or uplink transmission, the host node of the first node can carry one or more bearer identifiers in the configuration information, so that the first node can determine to participate in network coding together. one or more bearers. The first node will need to map to the one or more bearer packets together for network coding. The identifier of the bearer may be the ID of the bearer, such as the UE DRB ID, etc. As an example, it is assumed that the first node is the DU hosted by the IAB, the target node is the IAB node 5, and the target node of the mapped data packet is the IAB node 5. The bearer includes: terminal equipment 1DRB1 (the bearer is identified as UE DRB 11), terminal equipment Device 2DRB2 (bearer identification is UE DRB 22), terminal device 3DRB1 (bearer identification is UE DRB 31). If the bearer identifiers included in the configuration information are UE DRB 11 and UE DRB 22, the DU of the IAB host determines to perform network coding on the data packets that need to be mapped to terminal equipment 1DRB1 and terminal equipment 2DRB2.

In addition, the host node of the first node may also indicate whether the bearer participates in performing network coding together when configuring the bearer for the first node. As an example, when configuring the terminal device 1DRB1 for the first node, the host node of the first node instructs the terminal device 1DRB1 to participate in performing network coding together. When the terminal device 1DRB2 is configured for the first node, the terminal device 1DRB2 is instructed to participate in network coding together. When the terminal device 2DRB1 is configured for the first node, the terminal device 2DRB1 is instructed not to participate in performing network coding together. When the terminal device 3DRB1 is configured for the first node, the terminal device 3DRB1 is instructed not to participate in performing network coding together. The target nodes of the data packets that need to be mapped to the terminal device 1DRB1 , the terminal device 1DRB2 , and the terminal device 2DRB1 are the same as the IAB node 3 . Then, the first node determines that the target node is the IAB node 3, and the data packets mapped to the terminal device 1DRB1 and the terminal device 1DRB2 need to be network-coded together.

As an example, when the first node performs network coding on at least one data packet carried by the same target node, the network coding method used may be RLNC, fountain code, or convolutional network coding, etc., which is not limited in this application. In addition, the first node may establish a network coding entity for each target node, run a network coding process in each network coding entity, and perform network coding on at least one data packet carried by the same target node; the first node also There may be only one network coding entity, and the network coding entity includes multiple network coding processes corresponding to multiple target nodes one-to-one. It should be understood that the above-mentioned network coding entity may also have a decoding function for receiving and decoding the network coding data from the corresponding target node, which may also be referred to as a network coding and decoding entity.

In addition, there may be cases where the encoded data packets of multiple nodes are sent to the same target node. In order to enable the target node to identify the source of the encoded data packets, so as to facilitate network decoding of the encoded data packets from the same node, the first node sends the encoded data packets. The packet header of the encoded data packet may further include the identifier of the first node. As an example, the encoded data packet may use an IP packet header, a GTP-U packet header, etc., and the identifier of the first node may be carried in an options field or a padding field in the IP packet header, GTP-U packet header, etc. , such as carrying the device ID, IP address, etc. of the first node; as another example, if there is a network coding protocol sublayer, the identifier of the first node can be carried in the network coding sublayer data packet header; as another example , the identifier of the first node can be carried in the BAP layer header.

S702: The first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node.

After the first node performs network encoding on the data packets of the at least one bearer together, the obtained encoded data packets may no longer be applicable to the transmission paths separately configured for the at least one bearer by the host node of the first node.

In a possible implementation, the host node of the first node may send the target node granularity routing configuration information to the first node. The routing configuration information may only be used for the encoded data packet, and is used to instruct the first node to send one or more transmission paths of the encoded data packet to each target node. Specifically, the routing configuration information includes routes for the first node to send the encoded data packet to each target node with one or more sets of backhaul links, wherein each set of backhaul links corresponds to a transmission path. As an example, the route of each set of backhaul links includes the BAP routing ID corresponding to the encoded data packet and/or the BAP address of the next hop node and/or the egress BH RLC channel (channel, CH) identifier, where the BAP routing The ID is used to identify the destination node BAP address of the encoded data packet on the backhaul link and the transmission path on the backhaul link.

Since it is the routing configuration information at the granularity of the target node, the host node of the first node can send the routing configuration information to the first node through a non-UE associated F1AP message (Non-UE associated F1AP), such as the DU sent to the first node. .

In addition, when the first node sends the encoded data packet to a certain target node through multiple transmission paths, the routing configuration information may further include information on the distribution ratio of the multiple transmission paths.

Referring to FIG. 8 , taking the first node as the DU of the IAB host and the second node (target node) as the IAB node 3 as an example, the routing configuration information configures the transmission of the DU of the IAB host to send the encoded data packet to the IAB node 3 Path 1 and transmission path 2, and configure the distribution ratio of transmission path 1 (transmission to IAB node 3 through IAB node 1) and transmission path 2 (transmission to IAB node 3 through IAB node 2) as 2:3. The DU hosted by the IAB performs network coding on the data packets that need to be mapped to terminal equipment 1DRB1, terminal equipment 1DRB2, terminal equipment 2DRB1 and terminal equipment 2DRB2. After obtaining the encoded data packets, 40% of the obtained encoded data packets pass through transmission path 1. Transmission, 60% of encoded packets are transmitted through transmission path 2.

S703: The second node performs network decoding on the encoded data packet from the first node.

The second node will receive the encoded data packets from different transmission paths, perform network decoding on the data packets from the same sending node, recover the original data packets, and continue to send them to the next hop node.

As an example, referring to FIG. 8 , after receiving the multiple encoded data packets obtained by RLNC from the DU from the IAB host, the IAB node 3 can use RLNC to perform network decoding on the obtained multiple encoded data packets to restore the original data packet, and according to the IP address or TEID carried in the IP header of the original data packet, the terminal device corresponding to the original data packet is determined, and the original data packet is forwarded to the corresponding terminal device.

The above is described by taking the host node of the first node as an example to configure the transmission path of the encoded data packet sent by the first node to the second node through routing configuration information. In a possible implementation, in order to further reduce signaling Overhead, the first node sends the transmission path of the encoded data packet to the second node, and can also multiplex the transmission path corresponding to at least one bearer that participates in network coding together, and transmits the encoding through the corresponding transmission path of at least one bearer that performs network coding together data pack.

Taking the first node as the DU of the IAB host and the second node as the IAB node 3 as an example, referring to (A) in FIG. 9 , for the data packet of the terminal device DRB1 and the data of the terminal device DRB2 from the CU of the IAB host The CU of the IAB host configures the data packet of the terminal device DRB1 for the DU of the IAB host to transmit through transmission path 1 (via IAB node 1), and the data packet of the terminal device DRB2 is transmitted through transmission path 2 (via IAB node 2). When the DU of the IAB host receives the data packet from the CU of the IAB host, it sends the data packet of the terminal device DRB1 and the data packet of the terminal device DRB2 to the IAB node 3 through the transmission path 1 and the transmission path 2 respectively. Referring to (B) in FIG. 9 , after the DU of the IAB host performs network coding on the data packets of the terminal device DRB1 and the data packets of the terminal device DRB2 together, the encoded data packets can still be sent to the terminal device DRB1 through the transmission path 1 and the transmission path 2. IAB node 3.

In a possible implementation, when there are multiple transmission paths corresponding to at least one bearer multiplexed by the first node and performing network coding together, the first node may also Data volume ratio, which determines the distribution ratio of multiple transmission paths.

Still taking FIG. 9 as an example, if the data volume of the terminal device DRB1 participating in the network coding is 80K and the data volume of the terminal device DRB2 is 20K, the DU of the IAB host determines that the transmission path 1 corresponding to the terminal device DRB1 transmits 80% of the data. The coded data packets and the transmission path 2 corresponding to the terminal device DRB2 transmit 20% of the coded data packets, and the split ratio between the transmission path 1 and the transmission path 2 is 4:1.

The host of the first node configures a corresponding transmission path for each bearer, which may be implemented by configuring a route and a bearer mapping rule for each bearer respectively. For details, reference may be made to the above-mentioned related description that the routing and bearer mapping rules of data packets are uniformly configured by the CU hosted by the IAB in the IAB scenario, and details are not repeated here.

In addition, it should be understood that the present application is not limited to the IAB network, the first node and the second node may also be relay nodes, terminal devices, etc. in other networks, and the host node of the first node may also be a base station node, etc. .

In this embodiment of the present application, the CU of the IAB host may be referred to as the host node of the DU of the IAB host, which does not affect the understanding of the solution of the present application. In this embodiment of the present application, a bearer data packet may refer to a data packet that needs to be mapped to the bearer, and at least one bearer that participates in network coding together may refer to a first node that needs to be mapped to the at least one bearer. network coding.

The above has mainly introduced the solution provided by the present application from the perspective of interaction between the first node, the second node and the host node. It can be understood that, in order to realize the above functions, each network element includes a corresponding hardware structure and/or software module (or unit) for performing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that the present application can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein. Whether a function is performed by hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 are schematic structural diagrams of possible communication apparatuses provided by embodiments of the present application. These communication apparatuses can be used to implement the functions of the first node or the second node or the host node in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device may be the first node in FIG. 7 , or may be the second node or the host node in FIG. 7 , or may be applied to the first node or the second node or the host node modules (such as chips).

As shown in Figure 10. The communication apparatus 1000 may include: a processing unit 1002 and a transceiver unit 1003 , and may also include a storage unit 1001 . The communication apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the functions of the first node or the second node or the host node in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 above.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1002 is used to implement corresponding processing functions. The transceiver unit 1003 is used to support the communication between the communication device 1000 and other network entities. The storage unit 1001 is used to store program codes and/or data of the communication device 1000 . Optionally, the transceiving unit 1003 may include a receiving unit and/or a sending unit, which are respectively configured to perform receiving and sending operations.

When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the function of the first node in the method embodiment: the processing unit 1002 is configured to perform network coding on multiple bearer data packets together, and obtain encoded data packets, wherein the multiple bearer data packets The target node of is the second node; the transceiver unit 1003 is configured to send the encoded data packet to the second node.

In a possible design, the transceiver unit 1003 is further configured to receive configuration information from the host node of the communication device; the processing unit 1002 is further configured to determine the multiple bear.

In a possible design, the configuration information includes at least one of identification information of the multiple bearers, identification information of one or more Internet Protocol IP packet headers, and a delay threshold.

In a possible design, when the processing unit 1002 determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, it is specifically configured to: when the configuration information includes the one or more IP header identification information, The multiple bearers corresponding to the one or more IP header identification information are determined as the multiple bearers.

In a possible design, when the processing unit 1002 determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, the processing unit 1002 is specifically configured to determine that the delay requirement is greater than or equal to the delay threshold when the configuration information includes the delay threshold. The multiple bearers of the delay threshold are determined as the multiple bearers.

In a possible design, the transceiver unit 1003 is further configured to receive routing configuration information from a host node of the communication device, the routing configuration information instructing the communication device to send data to the communication device through one or more transmission paths. The second node sends the encoded data packet; when the transceiver unit 1003 sends the encoded data packet to the second node, it is specifically configured to send the encoded data packet to the second node through the one or more transmission paths the encoded packet.

In a possible design, when the routing configuration information instructs the communication device to send the encoded data packet to the second node through multiple transmission paths, the routing configuration information further includes the multiple transmission paths The split ratio information of the path.

In a possible design, when the transceiver unit 1003 sends the encoded data packet to the second node, it is specifically configured to send the encoded data packet to the second node through transmission paths corresponding to the multiple bearers Encoded packets.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1002 is further configured to, when the multiple bearers correspond to multiple transmission paths, according to the data volume ratio of the multiple bearers in the data packets of the multiple bearers, A split ratio of the plurality of transmission paths is determined.

In a possible design, the packet header of the encoded data packet contains the identifier of the communication device.

In a possible design, when the data packets carried by the multiple bearers are downlink data packets, the communication device is a distributed unit DU or an intermediate IAB node that accesses the backhaul integrated IAB host, and the second The node is an access IAB node.

In a possible design, when the data packets carried by the multiple bearers are uplink data packets, the communication device is an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node, and the second node is a DU of an IAB host.

In a possible design, the bearer is a data radio bearer DRB or a radio link control RLC bearer or a backhaul BH RLC channel.

When the communication apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the second node in the method embodiment: the transceiver unit 1003 is configured to receive multiple encoded data packets, wherein the packet headers of the multiple encoded data packets include the identifier of the first node; the processing unit 1002, for performing network decoding on the multiple encoded data packets together.

When the communication apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the host node in the method embodiment: the processing unit 1002 is configured to determine configuration information sent to the first node, where the configuration information includes identification information of multiple bearers, one or more network At least one item of protocol IP packet header identification information and delay threshold is used to determine multiple bearers for network coding together; the transceiver unit 1003 is used to send the configuration information to the first node.

In a possible design, the transceiver unit 1003 is further configured to send routing configuration information to the first node, where the routing configuration information indicates one or more transmissions of encoded data packets obtained through the network coding path.

As shown in FIG. 11 , the communication device 1100 includes a processor 1110 and an interface circuit 1120 . The processor 1110 and the interface circuit 1120 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1120 can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication apparatus 1100 may further include a memory 1130 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1110 or input data required by the processor 1110 to execute the instructions or data generated after the processor 1110 executes the instructions.

When the communication device 1100 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 7 , the processor 1110 is used to implement the function of the above-mentioned processing unit 1002 , and the interface circuit 1120 is used to implement the function of the above-mentioned transceiver unit 1003 .

As another form of this embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, and instructions are stored thereon, and when the instructions are executed by a communication device, the above-mentioned method embodiments are applicable to the first node or the second node or the host. The communication method of the node.

As another form of this embodiment, a computer program product containing instructions is provided, and when the instructions are executed by a communication device, the communication method applicable to the first node or the second node or the host node in the above method embodiments can be executed.

As another form of this embodiment, a chip is provided. When running, the chip can execute the communication method applicable to the first node or the second node or the host node in the above method embodiments.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, nodes (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the present application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to the processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor or other programmable data processing node to produce a machine such that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing node produce Means for implementing the functions specified in a flow or flow of a flowchart and/or a block or blocks of a block diagram.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing node to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory result in an article of manufacture comprising instruction means, the instructions The apparatus implements the functions specified in the flow or flow of the flowcharts and/or the block or blocks of the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded on a computer or other programmable data processing node to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable node to produce a computer-implemented process such that The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow or blocks of the flowcharts and/or the block or blocks of the block diagrams.

While the preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, additional changes and modifications to these embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once the basic inventive concepts are known. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be construed to include the preferred embodiment and all changes and modifications that fall within the scope of this application.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A communication method, comprising:

The first node performs network coding on the plurality of bearer data packets together, and obtains the encoded data packets, wherein the target node of the plurality of bearer data packets is the second node;

The first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node.
The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, by the first node, configuration information from a host node of the first node;

The first node determines the plurality of bearers according to the configuration information.
The method of claim 2, wherein the configuration information includes at least one of identification information of the multiple bearers, identification information of one or more Internet Protocol IP packet headers, and a delay threshold.
The method of claim 3, wherein when the configuration information includes the one or more IP header identification information, the first node determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, including :

The first node determines multiple bearers corresponding to the one or more IP header identification information as the multiple bearers.
The method of claim 3, wherein when the configuration information includes the delay threshold, the first node determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, comprising:

The first node determines multiple bearers with a delay requirement greater than or equal to the delay threshold as the multiple bearers.
The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the method further comprises:

The first node receives routing configuration information from a host node of the first node, the routing configuration information instructs the first node to send the encoded data packet to the second node through one or more transmission paths ;

The first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node, including:

The first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node through the one or more transmission paths.
The method of claim 6, wherein when the routing configuration information instructs the first node to send the encoded data packet to the second node through multiple transmission paths, the routing configuration information further comprises Including split ratio information of the multiple transmission paths.
The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the sending, by the first node, the encoded data packet to the second node, comprises:

The first node sends the encoded data packet to the second node through transmission paths corresponding to the multiple bearers.
The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

When the multiple bearers correspond to multiple transmission paths, the first node determines the distribution ratio of the multiple transmission paths according to the data volume ratio of the multiple bearers in the data packets of the multiple bearers.
The method according to any one of claims 1-9, wherein the packet header of the encoded data packet includes the identifier of the first node.
The method according to any one of claims 1-10, wherein when the data packets carried by the plurality of bearers are downlink data packets, the first node is a distribution of the integrated IAB host for access and backhaul type unit DU or an intermediate IAB node, the second node is an access IAB node.
The method according to any one of claims 1-11, wherein, when the data packets carried by the multiple bearers are uplink data packets, the first node is an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node, and the first node is an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node. The second node is the DU hosted by the IAB.
The method according to any one of claims 1-12, wherein the bearer is a data radio bearer DRB, a radio link control RLC bearer or a backhaul radio link control channel BH RLC CH.
A communication method, comprising:

The second node receives a plurality of encoded data packets, wherein the packet headers of the plurality of encoded data packets include the identifier of the first node;

The second node performs network decoding on the plurality of encoded data packets together.
A communication method, comprising:

The host node of the first node sends configuration information to the first node, where the configuration information includes at least one item of identification information of multiple bearers, one or more network protocol IP packet header identification information, and a delay threshold, for use in The determination of multiple bearers for network coding is performed together.
The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

The host node sends routing configuration information to the first node, where the routing configuration information indicates one or more transmission paths of the encoded data packets obtained through the network coding.
The method according to claim 16, wherein when the routing configuration information indicates multiple transmission paths of the encoded data packets obtained through the network coding, the routing configuration information further includes the multiple transmission paths The split ratio of the path.
A communication device, comprising: a processing unit and a transceiver unit;

The processing unit is configured to perform network coding on a plurality of bearer data packets together, and obtain an encoded data packet, wherein the target node of the plurality of bearer data packets is the second node;

The transceiver unit is configured to send the encoded data packet to the second node.
The device according to claim 18, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to receive configuration information from a host node of the communication device; the processing unit is further configured to determine the configuration information according to the configuration information. multiple bearers.
The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the configuration information includes at least one of identification information of the multiple bearers, identification information of one or more Internet Protocol IP packet headers, and a delay threshold.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein when the processing unit determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, the processing unit is specifically configured to be used when the configuration information includes the one or more IP header identification information At the time, the multiple bearers corresponding to the one or more IP packet header identification information are determined as the multiple bearers.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein when the processing unit determines the multiple bearers according to the configuration information, it is specifically configured to: when the configuration information includes the delay threshold A plurality of bearers that are required to be greater than or equal to the delay threshold are determined as the plurality of bearers.
The device according to any one of claims 18-22, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to receive routing configuration information from a host node of the communication device, the routing configuration information indicating the communication the device sends the encoded data packet to the second node through one or more transmission paths;

When the transceiver unit sends the encoded data packet to the second node, it is specifically configured to send the encoded data packet to the second node through the one or more transmission paths.
The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the routing configuration information instructs the communication apparatus to send the encoded data packet to the second node through multiple transmission paths, the routing configuration information further comprises: Information on the distribution ratio of the multiple transmission paths.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 22, wherein when the transceiver unit sends the encoded data packet to the second node, it is specifically configured to use transmission paths corresponding to the multiple bearers , and send the encoded data packet to the second node.
The apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the processing unit is further configured to, when the multiple bearers correspond to multiple transmission paths, according to the data packets of the multiple bearers according to the data packets of the multiple bearers The data volume ratio, which determines the distribution ratio of the multiple transmission paths.
The device according to any one of claims 18-26, wherein a packet header of the encoded data packet includes an identifier of the communication device.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 18-27, wherein when the data packets carried by the plurality of bearers are downlink data packets, the communication apparatus is a distributed access and backhaul integrated IAB host A unit DU or an intermediate IAB node, and the second node is an access IAB node.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 18-28, wherein when the data packets carried by the multiple bearers are uplink data packets, the communication apparatus is an access IAB node or an intermediate IAB node, the The second node is the DU hosted by the IAB.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 18-29, wherein the bearer is a data radio bearer DRB, a radio link control RLC bearer or a backhaul radio link control channel BH RLC CH.
A communication device, comprising: a processing unit and a transceiver unit;

The transceiver unit is configured to receive multiple encoded data packets, wherein the packet headers of the multiple encoded data packets include the identifier of the first node;

The processing unit is configured to perform network decoding on the plurality of encoded data packets together.
A communication device, comprising: a processing unit and a transceiver unit;

The processing unit is configured to determine configuration information to be sent to the first node, where the configuration information includes at least one item of identification information of multiple bearers, identification information of one or more network protocol IP packet headers, and a delay threshold, using Determination of multiple bearers for network coding together;

The transceiver unit is configured to send the configuration information to the first node.
The apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to send routing configuration information to the first node, the routing configuration information indicating one piece of encoded data packets obtained through the network coding or multiple transmission paths.
The apparatus according to claim 33, wherein when the routing configuration information indicates multiple transmission paths of the encoded data packets obtained through the network coding, the routing configuration information further includes the multiple transmission paths The split ratio of the path.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, a computer program or instruction is stored in the storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, any one of claims 1-13 is implemented. method, or implement the method of claim 14, or implement the method of any one of claims 15-17.
A communication system, characterized in that the system comprises a first node for performing the method according to any one of claims 1-13, a second node for performing the method according to claim 14, and a user in a host node performing the method of any one of claims 15-17.
A communication device, characterized by comprising: at least one processor and an interface circuit, and a related computer program is executed in the at least one processor, so that the communication device can implement any one of claims 1-13 Said method, or implements the method as claimed in claim 14, or implements the method as claimed in any one of claims 15-17.
A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product includes related program instructions, and when the related program instructions are executed, the method according to any one of claims 1-13 is implemented, or the method as claimed in claim 1 is implemented. A method as claimed in claim 14, or implementing a method as claimed in any of claims 15-17.